After years of domination by the Spurs and Lakers, last year's Western Conference playoffs featured a wealth of new faces going to new places. The Grizzlies knocked off the old stalwarts from San Antonio. The Lakers didn't make it out of the second round. The young Thunder made it all the way to the conference finals.

Of course, the Mavericks ended up winning the championship after a decade of knocking on the door. But let's not forget that many picked the Mavericks to lose in the first round. More picked against them against L.A. in the second. Many thought the Thunder would run Dallas off the floor for the conference title. And in the Finals, the consensus was that Dallas could not compete with the star power from Miami. The Mavericks proved everybody wrong every step of the way.

This kind of unpredictability hasn't always been commonplace in the NBA. Since the early '80s, the league has been prone to dynastic teams, the same squads winning year after year. Contenders would rise up for a game or two, sometimes a series, but in the end it was always the Lakers, or Celtics, then the Bulls, then the Spurs.

This is the historical context in which our Sim Season Western Conference bracket played out--and the West remained wild. After the series recaps, you'll find the matchups for the second round in both conferences.

Through today, we've played 1,230 games, or 240 more than the NBA will, and one round of playoffs as part of Sim Season, our Strat-O-Matic simulation of the locked out 2011-12 season. Watch for the #simseason hashtag.

The Grizzlies became just the fourth eight-seed to knock off a top seed when they eliminated the Spurs in last year's first round. Could they possible duplicate the feat against those old dogs from L.A.? You betcha, and the upset played out in a remarkably similar fashion to Memphis' franchise-changing victory over San Antonio. The Grizzlies served notice with a Game One win at the Staples Center. Memphis got 28 points from Rudy Gay, 24 off the bench from O.J. Mayo and ran the veteran Lakers off the court to the tune of a 28-8 edge in transition points. The Lakers drew even with a dramatic win in Game Two. Gay scored with two minutes left to put Memphis up two, but L.A. held them scoreless the rest of the way. The Laker tied the game on Pau Gasol's free throws and also got the winning points at the line from Kobe Bryant. The third game was a Memphis runaway, the Grizzlies using a 28-4 edge in fastbreak points and 56 points in the paint to forge the rout. But in doing so, Memphis lost Gay to an injury, declaring that he would miss five games, should the Grizzlies last that long. So Memphis was going to have to win without its best perimeter player, just as it did last year.

Game Four was the series' watershed game. The Lakers, needing to win to avoid falling into a 3-1 hole, lost Bryant to injury during the first half. So L.A. went to Gasol again and again. Gasol scored 28 of his 42 points after halftime during a nip-and-tuck game, which Memphis' Mike Conley sent into overtime with two free throws. Memphis started the extra session with an 11-2 run, then held on for the win. Derek Fisher hit a three with two seconds left to pull the Lakers within two, but that was as close as they got. L.A. stayed alive in an easy Game Five win, but Memphis won handily in Game Six to close out the series behind Zach Randolph's 31 points and 17 rebounds. Memphis did it again.

Bruised, battered and ultimately beaten--that's how the Dallas reign came to an end. All appeared well as the Mavericks took the first two games at home, though in the second game Dallas lost backup center Brendan Haywood for the series with an injury. Portland took an easy win in Game Three, during which the Mavericks lost Jason Kidd, who was to miss Game Four. In that game, Portland knotted the series against the shorthanded Mavericks, who started Rodrigue Beaubois in Kidd's stead. The Blazers broke the game open with a 14-2 third quarter run and the Mavericks couldn't close the gap down the stretch. Portland held off a furious rally in Game Five to seize the series lead. The Blazers led by 10 with 3:31 to play before Dirk Nowitzki's layup capped a nine-point run, leaving Portland up by a point with 1:28 to play. Wes Matthews hit a big three with 40 seconds left as the Blazers escaped. Nowitzki poured in 37 as Dallas won easily on Portland's home floor, forcing a seventh game. Back in Dallas, the champs' repeat hopes were dashed as Greg Oden led a dominating performance on the boards in Portland's runaway, scoring 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting and grabbing 15 rebounds. Lo and behold, the West's top two seeds were gone after the first round.

The Spurs were looking to get back on track after their shocking first-round exit last spring and did so against the high-flying Nuggets. Denver missed a golden opportunity to steal the first game as DeJuan Blair scored twice in the final minute and the Spurs escaped with the two-point win. San Antonio won a high-scoring Game Two. Denver led with just over four minutes left before Tony Parker and Richard Jefferson led a 13-3 Spurs run. Danilo Gallinari exploded for 48 points on just 17 shots as Denver crawled back into the series. San Antonio forced 18 turnovers in winning Game Four on Denver's home floor to regain a commanding series lead. The Spurs closed it out in Game Five behind Tony Parker's 30 points. Most disappointing for Denver is that the Nuggets held late fourth quarter leads in three of their losses.

Wow. This was a series with some remarkable moments but in the end, No. 3 Oklahoma City emerged as the highest-seeded team left in the Western Conference bracket. Kevin Durant scored 33 points in a deceptively difficult Game One victory that Houston led by five early in the fourth. OKC won the second game as well, escaping by the skin of its teeth by surviving a late seven-point barrage by Houston's Kevin Martin. The final score was 122-121 which I note because the final of Game Three was also 122-121, only this time Houston won. OKC led by six with 2:03 to play, but Martin and Chase Budinger hit threes to tie the score with 1:06 to play. Russell Westbrook hit a jumper, but Kyle Lowry hit yet another three to give Houston the win. The teams combined to shoot 30-for-55 from deep in the game. That turned out to be the first of three straight wins for the Rockets to push the favored Thunder to the brink of elimination. In Game Six, the Thunder stayed alive on Houston's home floor thanks to a combined 78 points from Westbrook and Durant. Durant scored 34 as the Thunder took Game Seven by overcoming an eight-point halftime deficit. The Rockets will be kicking themselves over their many missed opportunities during the grueling, seven-game loss.